UAE Team Emirates-XRG manager Mauro Gianetti has admitted that Tadej Pogačar and the team's performance staff studied Jonas Vingegaard's Giro d'Italia winning performance as they prepared for their clash at the Tour de France.
While the Dane was racing in Italy, Pogačar travelled to Sierra Nevada in Spain for three weeks of altitude training. Pogačar will ride the five-day Tour de Suisse (June 17-21) before facing Vingegaard at the Tour de France that begins with a team time trial in Barcelona on Saturday, July 4.
"Tadej watched the Giro and saw how good Jonas was," Gianetti told Cyclingnews.
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"We've kept an eye on him for sure but we're more focused on what we're doing. Tadej has been working hard and is focused on his training for the Tour. We know that we have to be ready for the Tour and ready to race hard. Then the road will decide."
Gianetti congratulated Vingegaard in the final podium area after the stage finish in Rome.
"Jonas has always been a great rider. We know how good he is and he's confirmed it by winning the Giro. It's a great moment in his career and he did the right thing by riding the Giro and he deserved to win it," Gianetti said sportingly.
UAE Team Emirates-XRG were unable to challenge Vingegaard and Visma-Lease a Bike due to a series of injuries and crashes early in the Giro. João Almeida struggled with a virus and pulled out of the Giro a week before the start. He is likely to return for the Tour Auvergne-Rhône Alpes but may not be fit enough to be part of the UAE Tour squad.
"We were very unlucky for the Giro," Gianetti said.
"We lost our designated leader João Almeida even before the start of the Giro. He wanted to target the Giro. Then we also lost Adam Yates in the stage 2 crash when he was in great form. Jay Vine was also going well and crashed out, too. If those three riders had raced for the Giro GC, we would have made it a very different race. But that's cycling and that's the Giro."
UAE were forced to find new goals and Jhonatan Narváez stepped up to win three stages, using his natural aggression and fast finish to win in Cosenza, Fermo and Chiavari. He challenged Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) for the points jersey but was forced to abandon the Giro during stage 19 after riding into a team bus after the previous day's finish in Pieve di Soligo and suffering a head injury.
"After losing three leaders, we had to reinvent our Giro. The riders took on every stage as an opportunity to win and they did," Gianetti said.
"Jhonatan won three stages with some aggressive racing and Igor Arrieta also took a great stage win. We're happy about how we fought back as a team after losing our leaders."
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